Basically, Activision just blacklisted the site for publishing a news post about the fact that Amazon had Black Ops 2 listed for a few hours, and refusing to take down the article when asked to.

They are asked not to come to the Transformers press event scheduled next week, all advertising campaigns have been cancelled, and they've been informed that they'll no longer be receiving review copies of any upcoming game.

There's also mention of a few other sites that took down the same news post as soon as asked to.

What do you guys think?

So, at least two things come out of this:

1. Black Ops 2 is real and Activision is now doing what it can to prevent it from being revealed too early. Or it's not true and Activision is trying to prevent misinformation from spreading.

It's probably a little of column A and a little of column B. It's 95% probably definitely almost assuredly 100% happening but they're just trying to control rumours and misinformation from swirling out of control. I think it'd honestly be better to just let these blogs run their mouths and just call them crazy, personally. Pulling a stunt like this makes the blog seem like they have credibility in regards to the rumour being fact.

Kudos to Gameblog.fr for wanting to stay honest and transparent to their audience. /bow

I'll be interested in what they say about this on podcasts, seeing as those podcasts are put out by sites that likely either won't run the story for fear of activision or already took it down for the same reason.

I really hope at least Giant Bomb or Weekend Confirmed/Shacknews have some integrity.

Gameblog will bend over. They always do. They like to get in bed with publishers and stuff. It's viewed by french gamers as a pretty shitty website, despite having people who worked for french gaming press in the 90s.

I need to ask but is the games industry the only industry that heavily penalises press for stuff like this?
It's not like Batman movie set photos a year before films release, surely it doesn't matter what time you get your hype on? Also it's CoD Black Ops 2 didn't they register 2-7 on web registrations, so not at all a big surprise.
Annoys me when I hear about stuff like this makes you question the integrity of other news sites and just shows Activision off as being a dick company in PR.

Why would these sites put it up anyways? COD usually isn't "officially" revealed until much closer to E3.

Yeah god forbid a site publish any news other than press releases from publishers.

Originally Posted by soultron

It's probably a little of column A and a little of column B. It's 95% probably definitely almost assuredly 100% happening but they're just trying to control rumours and misinformation from swirling out of control. I think it'd honestly be better to just let these blogs run their mouths and just call them crazy, personally. Pulling a stunt like this makes the blog seem like they have credibility in regards to the rumour being fact.

Kudos to Gameblog.fr for wanting to stay honest and transparent to their audience. /bow

Rumors and misinformation? It was on the Amazon page, that was what got reported on.

Rumors and misinformation? It was on the Amazon page, that was what got reported on.

I'm more speaking of any speculation that comes as a result, especially since there's no information out there aside from the Amazon listing. It's just the usual "we want to control 100% of the message," from the looks of things. ACTI is definitely going about it the wrong way though -- this is going to draw attention to things. Plus, cached versions and URLs don't really allow you to "erase" anything these days.

I'm more speaking of any speculation that comes as a result, especially since there's no information out there aside from the Amazon listing. It's just the usual "we want to control 100% of the message," from the looks of things. ACTI is definitely going about it the wrong way though -- this is going to draw attention to things. Plus, cached versions and URLs don't really allow you to "erase" anything these days.

Yeah. Plus after the debacle last time were basically the entire story and art of MW3 was leaked and posted everywhere; they seem to be trying to hold their cards closer and avoid all speculation.

People still believe that website with Iron Wolf and a game developed by "Treyerch" is real. Just last week, that had to say again that it was fake, as if "Treyerch" wasn't evidence enough. :p

Yesterday morning, Amazon France previously referenced on its website a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 . A blunder quickly corrected by the dealer, but, at the rate things are going on the Internet, has had time to be relayed on video game news sites, French, and of course Gameblog.

Activision France we immediately contacted by telephone and by email, following the publication of this information, ask us to "remove this news now." Gameblog has obviously declined, as required by our ethics and respect for our readers.

Activision also confirmed that he had joined the other sites have published this information. Some preferred comply immediately removing their article: you will not find such a trace of this news item on Jeuxvideo.com or JVN.com , although Google has obviously kept track (see below, click to enlarge images).
News Google's cache has preserved the beginning of the recalled items. The URL is still visible, but the news has been withdrawn. Google image, the picture yet available that adorned the news. Also on JVN, the google cache has preserved the image of illustration but the article was removed.

It is surprising that an editor can also easily be interference in the editorial of some publications, but it is now a reality.

The consequences

We felt it important to clarify that our intention today, keeping in line this news , is none other than doing our job: to inform.

Unfortunately, this decision brings consequences: Activision chose to cut all ties with Gameblog. Specifically, the publisher asked us not to introduce ourselves to an event Transformers: The fall of Cybertron , which we were invited next week, we can not cover it as planned. We will not receive more, now, Activision games, which will likely cause delays in the publication of their tests. It also meant that Activision would end its purchases of advertising space to our district and cancel campaigns already planned.

In revealing these facts internal, we would first like to inform our readers that it will suffer itself thus the consequences of our choices, and ensure that Gameblog refuses to yield to such pressure to prevent him from exercising his profession in freely.